Educational Science

A new survey finds two-thirds of Americans would support a law banning cell phone use while driving. Fewer than half, however, wish to make them illegal in restaurants and movie theaters. The poll of 849 adults, of which 69 percent owned cell phones, was conducted in March and announced this...

The ABCs of IPOs: Easy-to-Pronounce Stocks Do Best

There are myriad strategies for making a company's first day of stock trading a good one. Add a pronounceable ticker symbol to the list. A new study of initial public offerings (IPOs) found that stocks with ticker symbols you can actually say, such as ELY or MUF, did vastly better...

WASHINGTON (AP)—Imagine an invisibility cloak that works just like the one Harry Potter inherited from his father. Researchers in England and the United States think they know how to do that. They are laying out the blueprint and calling for help in developing the exotic materials needed to build a...

Wham! Wham! Wham! Now Get Some Sleep, Ma'am

NEW YORK—The sound echoed throughout Montefiore Medical Center, like somebody pounding dozens of nails around the clock. Wham! Wham! Wham! The source was actually a pill banger, used to crush medications for geriatric patients who can't swallow whole pills. The process occurred repeatedly each shift, disrupting sleeping patients and annoying...

Jesus Could Have Walked on Ice, Scientist Says

Rare conditions could have conspired to create hard-to-see ice on the Sea of Galilee that a person could have walked on back when Jesus is said to have walked on water, a scientist said today. The study, which examines a combination of favorable water and environmental conditions, proposes that Jesus...

The Psychological Strain of Living Forever

In Oscar Wilde's novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, the main character barters his soul for eternal youth but becomes wicked and immoral in the process. Leon Kass believes humanity risks striking a similar Faustian bargain if it pursues technology that extends life spans beyond what is natural. If our...

Optimism Comes with Age

People tend to see the glass half full more frequently as they age, new research indicates. Researchers showed test subjects virtual faces portraying sadness, anger, fear and happiness. They used eye-tracking technology to record which faces the subjects looked at and for how long. Test subjects age 18-21 focused on...

Proposal to Implant Tracking Chips in Immigrants

Scott Silverman, Chairman of the Board of VeriChip Corporation, has proposed implanting the company's RFID tracking tags in immigrant and guest workers. He made the statement on national television on May 16. Silverman was being interviewed on Fox & Friends. Responding to the Bush administration's call to know who is...

Cell Phone Users Make Polling More Difficult

Telephone polling has long been a staple of political prognosticating and otherwise sampling the tastes and opinions of Americans on everything from evolution to hybrid vehicles to cell phone use. But there is a growing potential problem pollsters must confront: More than 7 percent of U.S. residents rely entirely on...

Al Gore Takes 'Inconvenient Truth' to Cannes

CANNES, France (AP)—Michael Moore has been the American on a mission at the Cannes Film Festival for the past few years. This time it's Al Gore's turn, with the studious but engrossing documentary An Inconvenient Truth.'' The former U.S. vice president climbed Cannes' famous red carpet in black tie this...